1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to a moving picture content correction technique suitable for, e.g., a personal computer including a browser function to download moving picture content from a moving picture distribution site via the Internet, and plays it back.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, it is popular to browse moving picture content (AV content) available from a moving picture distribution site on the Internet using a browser.
When the user browses a web page of a moving picture distribution site using a browser, the browser activates a moving picture reception/playback program embedded as plug-in software. When the user performs an operation for instructing to start playing back AV content, the moving picture reception/playback program downloads the AV content from the moving picture distribution site via the Internet, and decodes the content to separate it into video data and audio data. The moving picture reception/playback program outputs the separated video data and audio data to a dynamic link library (DLL) which belongs to an operating system. The video data and audio data are passed to the kernel module of the operating system via the DLL, and output from, e.g., a display and loudspeaker, respectively.
Furthermore, in recent years, there has been an increasing demand to enjoy a higher-quality picture of the AV content played back by the above-described procedure. There has also been a strong demand to meet the above demand while utilizing existing modules intact.
To meet the above demands, there exists a method in which data exchanged between two modules are acquired by another module, and the other module executes target processing (in this case, image correction for high quality) of the acquired data (see, e.g., Jpn. Pat. Appln KOKAI Publication No. 2006-40021).
To play back AV content downloaded from a moving picture distribution site, video data and audio data contained in the AV content must be respectively output to a display and loudspeaker in synchronism with each other. It is therefore impossible to adopt an easy method which acquires only the video data contained in the AV content, and corrects the video data to improve picture quality.
Even if both the video data and audio data are acquired, and corrected to improve picture quality and sound quality, respectively, there is a difference between delay times due to the correction of the video data and audio data. This makes it difficult to realize AV content playback which satisfies the user's needs.